A man has been sentenced to five and a half years in jail for his involvement in the theft of nine German expressionist paintings valued at 3.6m euros (�2.3m).

Milenko Filipovic of Bosnia admitted his role in the break-in at Berlin's Bruecke museum in April which left a valuable Max Pechstein painting ripped in half.

German Petar Bolovic was put on probation for two years for attempting to sell the paintings.

Among the works of art were six pieces by Erich Heckel as well as paintings by Emil Nolde and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

Two other men have denied taking part in the burglary and their trial continues.

Irrer Soldat (Mad Soldier) by Erich Heckel: Among the recovered works

Thieves managed to deactivate the alarm system of the museum before making off with the works of art by smashing a window.

It was initially feared the paintings had been smuggled to Russia but they were found a month later in a flat in Berlin.

But half of Pechstein's Young Girl, painted in 1908, was missing, having been ripped in two.

Degenerate art

The missing half was eventually found in a sack discarded at the side of a road.

Mr Filipovic, 44, said he did not know who had vandalised the painting, saying he had been shocked at the damage.

He was captured by police as he later attempted to break into an optician's shop in Berlin.

The museum specialises in the Die Bruecke group, one of the largest expressionist movements and founded in the city of Dresden in 1905 by Kirchner and Heckel.

Often associated with the freewheeling artistic life of 1920s Germany, the group's works were banned as "degenerate art" by the Nazis after they took power in 1933.

The Berlin museum, which opened in 1967, has more than 400 paintings as well as drawings, watercolours and sculptures.